Surplus Value
is a project of The Praxis Network, a loose community of Marxian
thinkers and activists from around Australia. Our initial plan is
to build a viable and useful network amongst ourselves. We also
trust that others may be interested in joining in this project.
To carry this out, we have established this website and an email group
for discussions and debate. We also publish a journal (currently
annually).

reintroduce class as fundamental to developing political understanding
and strategy, particularly for the labour movement to respond to
current strategies and tactics of capital in a globalised world.

reintroduce a materialist approach to our own history and into everyday political practice.

bring a dialectical approach to our political activity, so that
strategies are based on the lives and experiences of everyday
Australian people - both workers, and those currently dependent on
social security – rather than on a dogmatic assertion of “political
truths”.

Image above:"In
a paired series of mural-like canvases, titled “Builders” and
“Pastimes”, the French painter and Communist Fernand Leger (1881-1955)
depicted scaffolders as acrobats and circus performers as collective
workers. Here, creativity appears as work while work is represented as
art, in a world where both jobs and play enrich human capacities. Leger
portrayed “new-fangled” human beings, reliant on each other and hence
unafraid of machinery or frameworks of steel. For a glimpse of what
work should look like, consider the joy in Leger’s paintings." (John Berger, Permanent Red,
Methuen , London , 1960, pp. 121-25. )

Please Note:
this web site is still under development, so please be patient if there
is no content on some of the pages. Please contact us via the email
address if you find any problems or have any suggestions to make.